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Hokitika Guardian, 19 September 1938, Page 4

The guaranteed price for dairy produce may be expected to play its part in tlie forthcoming election. The dairy people have had a taste of the stability of prices at a range which proved acceptable to many districts. It had a useful effect, too, on the farmermanaged dairying companies. No longer was it necessary to study the mar.

ket, and cogitate on the best time to sell to advantage. .The rise and fall of prices was no longer a nightmare of doubt and difficulty. In these instances the guaranteed prices removed a burden which the man on the land found difficult to bear with ease or comfort. Under the fixed price lie had a definite income assured for the season without fear of any sag in prices. According to the internal management of the factory, so was the price lifted in the nnal payment to cream suppliers. This condition has proved gratifying to many, and the small farmer in particular would not readily go' back to the old conditions when subservient to butter buyers’ vagaries. Now that the guaranteed scheme lias had a full trial those concerned? xvill form their own opinion about the equity of it to themselves and the benefit against their own management on an open market. Last year’s transactions cost the country a good round sum and that the Treasury has to shoulder on behalf of the people as a whole. This season an advance in price is made, and a larger deficit predicted for the account. The Government is thus giving the industry a substantial direct subsidy which will assist to counter balance some of the draw-backs complained of through lack of suitable labour and the increased cost of it Those factors have put some dairy farmers out of business, or necessitated a reduction of herds, to enable the family labour to perform the essential dairy work. Probably in such cases, votes may be lost but in the aggregate the dairy fanner has had special consideration, and taking that with the stability of income, into account, will feel better disposed to the source of supply. Whether in the face of experience, the much taiked-of compensation price can have any effect, remains to he seen. Indeed that scheme needs much fuller elucidation for the farmer to comprehend it fully. Altogether, the Government scheme, criticised though it has boon, will continue to satisfy many involved in the industry, now working under less stringent conditions